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Talk to the Hand: A Field Guide to Practical Palmistry
Palmistry is an ancient science and an unsurpassed tool for character and emotion analysis. Everyone has the ability to tap its potential for insight, reflection, and greater understanding--and world acclaimed palmistry expert Vernon Mahabal will show you how. Talk to the Hand reveals the tricks of the palm reader's trade and is organized around the most popular questions and inquiries the author has received over the years. It serves as a fascinating field guide for those who want a quick, accurate way to assess their own and other people's talents, abilities, psychology, and emotional personality. The diagrams and accompanying texts are deliberately simple and straightforward, providing quick access to vital answers and potential solutions to pressing questions. The information found here is based upon extensive background research and years of the author's experience working with thousands of people.
192 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2018
15 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 15, 2020
Jeez, this sucks. At least it's short. I regret this being my first book read on the subject.
Not at all what it claims to be, "a field guide to practical palmistry," but instead a lot of farting about on the author's life and beliefs (and how right and correct they are compared to everyone else's, obviously.) Spends half of the book outlining himself as a Berkeley student who ran off to a Hare Krishna group and tagged along with some punk fellow who read palms on the street in New York in a q&a. He then gives a handful of interesting pointers that would be better published in a pamphlet, blog or e-book, easily breezed through in 15 minutes and bookended by opinions on how "deviant" gender/sexuality and aversion to marriage destroys society, vaccines are definitely linked to autism, mental illness is psychic weakness, modern science and media is untrustworthy, and people with bad childhoods probably deserve it because of karmic reincarnation. The palm-reading tips aren't even all that specific or enlightening compared to how ~mystical and wise~ he seems to want to make himself out to be for interpreting palms, he repeats himself often, and there's not any astrological information or references for the reader to match how important he says it is to his practice.
If you want instruction on something spiritual, it's not here. It's not even entertaining.
Not at all what it claims to be, "a field guide to practical palmistry," but instead a lot of farting about on the author's life and beliefs (and how right and correct they are compared to everyone else's, obviously.) Spends half of the book outlining himself as a Berkeley student who ran off to a Hare Krishna group and tagged along with some punk fellow who read palms on the street in New York in a q&a. He then gives a handful of interesting pointers that would be better published in a pamphlet, blog or e-book, easily breezed through in 15 minutes and bookended by opinions on how "deviant" gender/sexuality and aversion to marriage destroys society, vaccines are definitely linked to autism, mental illness is psychic weakness, modern science and media is untrustworthy, and people with bad childhoods probably deserve it because of karmic reincarnation. The palm-reading tips aren't even all that specific or enlightening compared to how ~mystical and wise~ he seems to want to make himself out to be for interpreting palms, he repeats himself often, and there's not any astrological information or references for the reader to match how important he says it is to his practice.
If you want instruction on something spiritual, it's not here. It's not even entertaining.
January 12, 2021
There is about 70 pages of good palmistry information & tips in here. (However, about half of these pages are corresponding diagrams, so really it’s around 35 pages) Since the author has been studying so long, I do wish he would have covered more about astrology and its link to palmistry. As for the other 100 pages in this book, I have got to say it’s a total disappointment. Not only is the author’s writing style extremely pretentious and unentertaining, but he also speaks on his trans/homophobia & misogyny, as “abnormal sexuality” and the breaking of gender roles is “eroding” the institution of marriage. This is thinly veiled of course, but extremely obvious. You know what isn’t thinly veiled? The author straight up saying vaccines cause autism. *IN A PALMISTRY BOOK* Additionally, the author uses the Q+A section mostly for the purposes of imparting his life story. While the palm reading tips in this book check out, I feel as if this would be better marketed as something else. The description on the back of this book is 60% false advertising.
December 12, 2018
I wanted to give this book four stars, but I had to take one off for thinly veiled anti-LGBT, anti-kink, basically anti-anything that is not conservative gender and sexual norm language found on two pages specifically. There's also some areas that read borderline judgmental on divorce and a section on vaccinations and autism, which many will find disquieting.
So taking that with a grain of salt, (it's only a few pages towards the end), the rest is a well edited, lively and entertaining read with quick, well diagramed summarizations of palm reading. The author doesn't believe there are very many good palm readers in the world, truly committed to the art. I have no opinions on this. I've never had my palm read past one friend trying out his new found knowledge on me in passing and this is my first book on palmistry I've consumed. I'm reserving judgment on accuracy. I was slightly disappointed that he never really explained how palms are star charts beyond naming the fingers by the planets. Left me curious to read more, if only to understand the mythology of the hand. I think I'll go with a text less focused on popular use next time.
So taking that with a grain of salt, (it's only a few pages towards the end), the rest is a well edited, lively and entertaining read with quick, well diagramed summarizations of palm reading. The author doesn't believe there are very many good palm readers in the world, truly committed to the art. I have no opinions on this. I've never had my palm read past one friend trying out his new found knowledge on me in passing and this is my first book on palmistry I've consumed. I'm reserving judgment on accuracy. I was slightly disappointed that he never really explained how palms are star charts beyond naming the fingers by the planets. Left me curious to read more, if only to understand the mythology of the hand. I think I'll go with a text less focused on popular use next time.
December 28, 2018
More of a 2.5/5, it's an interesting read, but the author sounds very pretentious in the forward and is obviously very opinionated about things I don't necessarily agree with. The palmistry itself is intriguing, and it's a great intro, I just think that the author comes off as running in those faux spiritual circles of privileged kids who got bored.
May 2, 2020
On page 41 he gets political. He seems to think, "traditional gender roles" should be reinforced. That and acts as if low morals are a result of, "abnormal sexuality" so rather homophobic. That and marriage is inherently spiritual/religious and without it a society cannot be wholesome (sorry Atheists). On page 37, he gets into Vedic (Hindu) karma. Which the way he explains it sounds very victim blamey. "If a child grew up with an absent father, this child himself was an absent father in a previous life." So if you have a bad life, it's because you deserve it according to him.
On top of everything else, he rarely mentions anything about palm reading. A lot of it is talk about his mentor for too long then on the side mention one line on the hand, now back to my life story. This is how he fills up pages and pretends like he knows anything. Half of the book could be omitted and it would make no difference.
The last thing I would like to mention is the way he puts down other palm readers repeatedly and sternly. They won't teach you right, they don't know what that really means, blah blah. So he pushes the, "I'm right, everyone else is wrong, only trust me and what I say" narrative quite hard. All in all, this is a terrible book that is best avoided. You will not learn much of anything even if you do agree with his politics, which have no place in a palm reading book. If I wanted to read about politics, I would not have picked a palmstry book, now would I?
On top of everything else, he rarely mentions anything about palm reading. A lot of it is talk about his mentor for too long then on the side mention one line on the hand, now back to my life story. This is how he fills up pages and pretends like he knows anything. Half of the book could be omitted and it would make no difference.
The last thing I would like to mention is the way he puts down other palm readers repeatedly and sternly. They won't teach you right, they don't know what that really means, blah blah. So he pushes the, "I'm right, everyone else is wrong, only trust me and what I say" narrative quite hard. All in all, this is a terrible book that is best avoided. You will not learn much of anything even if you do agree with his politics, which have no place in a palm reading book. If I wanted to read about politics, I would not have picked a palmstry book, now would I?
December 27, 2024
Audible version: Awful book. The writer is anti-vax and ultra-conservative, and his insecurities are obvious and cringe-inducing. The palmistry-related information is poorly organized and clichéd. You would get more from Wikipedia.
March 17, 2025
The author thinks vaccines cause autism, so I wish I (an autistic person) had not wasted my time with something where someone was basically just going to try and explain away me and my mind. God hate that. instant hate. This little opinion was dropped in the last 95% of the book.
This guy needs to make some disabled ftiends.
This guy needs to make some disabled ftiends.
June 28, 2023
Fantastic guide. Would highly recommend to anyone who not just wants to learn the lines, but the why's behind the process.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews